Nearly 43% of all reported internet fraud comes from auction
fraud, according to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center's annual
data trends report. The IFCC, a partnership between the FBI and the
National White Collar Crime Center, this week released its annual
statistics.
Nigerian Letter fraud made up nearly 15.5% of complaints. This
refers to a well-known on-line scam. An e-mail, purporting to be
from the Nigerian government, requests use of the recipient’s bank
account for a transfer of millions of dollars. The recipient is
told he or she can keep a percentage.
When account details are provided, the scammer withdraws all
savings from the victim’s account. This scam netted an average of
more than $5,500 per victim. One victim lost $78,000.
Non-deliverable merchandise and non-payment accounted for 20.3%
of complaints. Among other findings, identity theft cost around
$3,000 per victim, and investment fraud around $1,000.
Complaints filed with the IFCC totalled 49,711 in 2001. The
reported losses totalled $18 million.
